A huge variety of sensors have been used in large numbers in our everyday life for some time. They are specialized for particular purposes including detection of car thefts, house break-ins, and fires. These sensors typically make up sensor networks for individual purposes. We can use information from the sensor networks to fulfill the intended purposes.
At the same time, technology is under development to utilize information from a sensor network in application software on a computer outside the network. An example is found in a paper published on Dec. 9, 1998, “Designing and implementation of sensor data agent for sensor network application,” by Shiraishi You & Anzai Yuichiro, Extended Abstracts (7th Workshop), MultiAgent and Cooperation Computation. The paper discloses a system called an “agent platform” capable of providing a flexible interface to applications utilizing the sensor network.
This system functions as an interface between a plurality of applications and a node manager managing nodes (sensor nodes) on the sensor network and providing information from the nodes. The use of such a system is intended to reduce communications between the applications and the node manager. Further, this system interprets an abstract task from the applications into a more definite message designating a node ID.
A sensor network is basically configured in accordance with a particular purpose, as described above, and sensors in the sensor network are equipped in order to sense an event in accordance with the purpose of the sensor network.
In some cases, the sensor network equipped with a variety of sensors in large numbers can obtain information other than information for the intended purpose by combining information from predetermined sensors in the sensor network. By obtaining information for a purpose different from the intended purpose as described above, it is possible to utilize the sensors effectively.
However, even though the technique disclosed in the paper may be employed to select one of the nodes in accordance with an abstract task and obtain information from the selected node, the abstract task is still a task for designating one of the nodes. Hence, the application or user is required to have knowledge of the nodes. This causes inconvenience when using the sensor network to obtain information having a purpose different from the intended purpose as described above.
In view of the foregoing problems, the present invention has an objective to provide a sensor network system capable of effectively utilizing a plurality of sensors included therein by using sensing results of the plurality of sensors to acquire a wide variety of information; an information processing device in the sensor network system; an information processing program; and a computer-readable storage medium containing the information processing program.